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2018 911 Overview

The sound of the $293,200 911 GT2 RS is like nothing in the current Porsche lineup – or on the road right now, period. Hammer the floor-mounted accelerator pedal and the GT2 RS spits raw, melodious frequencies that will rumble your spine and make your hair stand on end. "We wanted to make an honest turbo," Porsche's Andreas Preuninger, who's in charge of Porsche high-performance GT range of cars like the 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4, says, "because nowadays turbos tend to get modified in a way that they feel like 10-liter [naturally aspirated] engines, and that's not the point." Preuninger's voice speeds up, like a whirring compressor. "I think a turbo motor has so many interesting sounds and characteristics... I wanted this turbo to burble and overrun, to make hissing sounds of the wastegate and mechanical noises. The breathing of the engine, the way it builds up power—even a little turbo lag, why not? The GT2 RS had to be different, and it is. Big time." A large part of Preuninger's job involves preserving the company's sporting soul in roadgoing vehicles, which is a particularly critical part of Porsche's business. Get a GT right, and you can quell the critics who say the manufacturer is losing the plot by building Cayennes and Panameras; get it wrong, and you risk alienating the diehards and Porsche evangelists. This time around, Preuninger went old school to create that elusive difference: he dug into the Porsche museum collection and put a 1970s-era 935 Turbo and several turbocharged racecars on a lift, measuring things like intake runner lengths and the header diameters. The findings helped shape the GT2 RS's inimitable howl. It's hard for enthusiasts to find fault in Preuninger's latest creation, at least on paper. Though power is only driven to the rear wheels, the GT2 RS recently ran a record-setting 6:42.3 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, beating the 887 horsepower, all-wheel drive 918 Spyder's time by a boggling 10 seconds. It also shamed the most recent record holder, the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. But numbers only tell half the story, so we traveled to Portugal Portimão circuit to get the full seat-of-the-pants scoop on this 700 horsepower beast. Beating the venerable 918 Spyder at the Nürburgring requires a fearsome power-to-weight ratio, hardcore engine tuning, a reworked suspension setup, and a touch of luck. As such, the GT2 RS's weight loss regime involved everything from carbon fiber bucket seats (saving around 31 pounds) and a magnesium roof (2.2 pounds lighter) to deleted rear seats (21 pounds) and the use of carbon door hinges (trimming 1.7 pounds). Incorporating Gorilla Glass at the rear also did away with 7.7 pounds. Counting the loss of all-wheel drive hardware, the GT2 RS jettisons around 300 pounds compared to an equivalent 911 Turbo S, totaling 3,241 pounds. The $31,000 Weissach package saves an additional 40 pounds and includes exotica like carbon fiber stabilizer bars, magnesium wheels, a titanium roll cage (for non-U.S. markets), and a three-layer carbon fiber roof panel; …Full Review

2018 911 Overview

The sound of the $293,200 911 GT2 RS is like nothing in the current Porsche lineup – or on the road right now, period. Hammer the floor-mounted accelerator pedal and the GT2 RS spits raw, melodious frequencies that will rumble your spine and make your hair stand on end. "We wanted to make an honest turbo," Porsche's Andreas Preuninger, who's in charge of Porsche high-performance GT range of cars like the 911 GT3 and Cayman GT4, says, "because nowadays turbos tend to get modified in a way that they feel like 10-liter [naturally aspirated] engines, and that's not the point." Preuninger's voice speeds up, like a whirring compressor. "I think a turbo motor has so many interesting sounds and characteristics... I wanted this turbo to burble and overrun, to make hissing sounds of the wastegate and mechanical noises. The breathing of the engine, the way it builds up power—even a little turbo lag, why not? The GT2 RS had to be different, and it is. Big time." A large part of Preuninger's job involves preserving the company's sporting soul in roadgoing vehicles, which is a particularly critical part of Porsche's business. Get a GT right, and you can quell the critics who say the manufacturer is losing the plot by building Cayennes and Panameras; get it wrong, and you risk alienating the diehards and Porsche evangelists. This time around, Preuninger went old school to create that elusive difference: he dug into the Porsche museum collection and put a 1970s-era 935 Turbo and several turbocharged racecars on a lift, measuring things like intake runner lengths and the header diameters. The findings helped shape the GT2 RS's inimitable howl. It's hard for enthusiasts to find fault in Preuninger's latest creation, at least on paper. Though power is only driven to the rear wheels, the GT2 RS recently ran a record-setting 6:42.3 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, beating the 887 horsepower, all-wheel drive 918 Spyder's time by a boggling 10 seconds. It also shamed the most recent record holder, the Lamborghini Huracán Performante. But numbers only tell half the story, so we traveled to Portugal Portimão circuit to get the full seat-of-the-pants scoop on this 700 horsepower beast. Beating the venerable 918 Spyder at the Nürburgring requires a fearsome power-to-weight ratio, hardcore engine tuning, a reworked suspension setup, and a touch of luck. As such, the GT2 RS's weight loss regime involved everything from carbon fiber bucket seats (saving around 31 pounds) and a magnesium roof (2.2 pounds lighter) to deleted rear seats (21 pounds) and the use of carbon door hinges (trimming 1.7 pounds). Incorporating Gorilla Glass at the rear also did away with 7.7 pounds. Counting the loss of all-wheel drive hardware, the GT2 RS jettisons around 300 pounds compared to an equivalent 911 Turbo S, totaling 3,241 pounds. The $31,000 Weissach package saves an additional 40 pounds and includes exotica like carbon fiber stabilizer bars, magnesium wheels, a titanium roll cage (for non-U.S. markets), and a three-layer carbon fiber roof panel; …Hide Full Review

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